THE LONG-TERM CONSEQUENCES OF MANAGING AND SETTLING ETHNIC CONFLICTS THROUGH ETHNIC FEDERALISM: THE CASE OF ETHIOPIA.

Ethiopia has more than 80 ethnic groups and over 200 languages and dialects. This diversity has been a source of strength, as demonstrated by the unity of all the ethnic groups in the fight against the Italian invasion in the 1890s and 1930s as well as the Somali incursion in the 1970s. At the same time, ethnic diversity has led the country to protracted wars, for example, between the Tigrian speaking communities in the north (Tigray and Eritrea) and the rest of the country. The war with Eritrea lasted for 30 years, one of the longest in Africa, and ended with the creation of the state of Eritrea in 1991/1993. During the same time the Tigrian rebels toppled over the military regime in Addis Ababa and turned Ethiopia into an ethno-federal state. This paper attempts to examine the literature on the experiences of countries around the globe, including Ethiopia, in ethnic federalism, its rationale and the long-term consequences of this practice, especially for Ethiopia. The paper concludes that while the present ethnic-federal structure has resolved some of the old problems of nationality and ethnic self-governance, studies also show that it has raised more questions than it has answered. Some of the issues that remained unresolved include problems of delineating ethnic boundaries, recurring violent intra/inter-ethnic and regional conflicts, marginalization of people in some federal states that do not belong to the dominant ethnic group, weak capacity and decision-making power of regional federal states to administer justice; and the combined impact of all these on individual liberty which are demonstrated by the continuous narrowing of the political space and the ultimate move toward a dominant one-party ‘developmental’ state.